# New category permission: can post/reply, but not read

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-category-permission-can-post-reply-but-not-read/268159>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [June 13, 2023, 12:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-category-permission-can-post-reply-but-not-read/268159 "2023-06-13T12:04:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

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**Author:** ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 1:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-category-permission-can-post-reply-but-not-read/268159/10 "2023-06-14T13:48:54Z")

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> [@anilguven](#):
>
> The requirement will specifically pertain to the Create/Reply permission, although only the author of the topic and the administrators will possess the See permission.

~~Right. There would be a create permission that did not include read, but would allow reading topics created by the user. So a new type would get added here:~~

~~[discourse/app/models/category\_group.rb at main · discourse/discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/app/models/category_group.rb#L10~~)

~~And then a whole bunch of code that refers to those types would need to get modified. Or for a plugin, maybe it would make more sense for CategoryCustomField to get added that would bypass the creation restrictions and update category and topic serializers to include the now-available topics.~~

Maybe you’d create a topic in a category with create permissions and `after_create` (or similar) the plugin would move it to a subcategory that only staff can see. And then the category serializer could be ammended to pull user-owned topics from the hidden subcategory into the category. That wouldn’t require a new category permission at all and if the plugin were removed, the topics would just be regular topics in a staff-only category. A proof-of-concept of this (without proper specs and such) might not take too long. I might poke at this later today (though I’m afraid I might have other work to do.)

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